Hey all, I'm new to writing Sons of Anarchy but I'm not in any way new to writing. I just finished watching the first two seasons and the beginning of the third and I fell in love with Jax Teller. He's such a great father and son and I love him with Tara. I wish I could be Jax's Old Lady!
Anyway, I was severely disappointed by the lack of SOA fic here so I decided to put something up myself. I've always been intrigued by Jax and Tara's early days, so this is a small series featuring how they began and how they ended the first time.
The ages are just estimates based on Jax's birth year and my assumption that Jax and Tara are the same age. I've tried to keep everything as canon as possible, so please let me know if you think I've missed anything important or gotten any information wrong!
Disclaimer: I would love to own my own hot biker vigilante, but sadly I own nothing.
AS THE CROW FLIES
1994 – 15
The stars, fifteen year old Tara Knowles couldn't help but notice, seemed a little brighter tonight. They popped out of the black painted sky like sparkling diamonds. It made her feel like something special was going to happen tonight.
But maybe that was just the weed talking.
Taking one last toke, she felt her lungs grow heavy before letting out the thick smoke and flicking her roach off into a corner of the room she was sitting in. The party tonight was held in a house under construction, the siding wasn't even up yet, giving Tara a pretty good view of outside and above.
She leaned her head back against the drywall she was leaning against, her arms slung across her knees. Her skin tingled and her head buzzed. What she wouldn't do for a beer.
As if reading her mind, Donna's footsteps could be heard and soon the girl was sliding down the wall to sit next to her friend. She handed Tara a red cup, "Snagged this for you. Keg's almost tapped."
"Thanks," Tara smiled at her friend, knocking back nearly half the beer in her cup. They sat silently for a moment before Donna took a long pull of her drink and turned to watch the two boys standing some twenty feet away from them near a roaring bonfire.
She licked the beer off her upper lip, "Jax Teller has been staring at you all night."
Tara snorted, "Jax Teller stares at anything with a poon."
"That's not what Opie's been telling me," Donna insisted, shaking her head.
Tara nudged her shoulder, "Pillow talk?"
"Something like that," Donna couldn't help but grin. After a moment she added, "Ope says Jax thinks you're real smart. He likes that."
"We're chem partners. I let him cheat off me sometimes; he's just looking to get into my pants," Tara commented, taking another sip of her beer. But while she kept objecting to Jax Teller's interest in her, she found she couldn't keep her eyes off of him.
"Mhmm, okay let's go," Donna laughed, standing up and pulling Tara with her.
"Go? Where? What are you—"
"Hey, Opie!" Donna called out suddenly, grabbing the boys' attention. Opie gave his girlfriend a goofy crooked smile when she waved flirtatiously. Jax's eyes stayed on Tara and she tried not to notice.
Donna dragged her friend over to them, nodding to Jax before wrapping her arms around Opie's waist. Tara grit her teeth as she moved to stand next to Jax, knowing exactly how this was going to be played out. She rubbed her bare arms, wishing she'd thought to wear more than just a thin cotton T-shirt and a pair of jeans.
"You cold, Tara?" Opie asked and she didn't like the way he was looking at Jax when he said it. Donna smirked as she leaned her face into Opie's broad chest. Jax shuffled his feet a bit before turning to Tara.
"You wanna wear my sweatshirt? It probably doesn't smell very good but it's warm." His eyes twinkled in the firelight and Tara found herself lost in the clear blueness of them. Before she knew it, she was smiling shyly and nodding, accepting the worn sweatshirt from him.
It was very warm, but Jax was dead wrong about the smell. It smelled of motor oil and pine trees and a hint of musk and…Jax. Tara resisted the urge to pull it over her nose again to breathe in the scent as she settled the large sweatshirt over her small body.
"Looks good on you," Opie suggested with a wink. Tara flushed, her eyes immediately finding Jax's. He gave her a small half smile before turning to Opie, "You know, Ope, I'm pretty sure the girls have never been to the quarry at night before."
Donna turned in Opie's arms as her face lit up, "I thought they closed that place down…"
"They did, but there's still enough water in there for some moonlight swimming…if you girls are interested, that is."
"We sure as hell are! Right, Tare?" Everyone turned to Tara, she clutched at the loose sleeves of Jax's sweatshirt in her palms.
She nodded, glancing at Jax briefly before answering, "Definitely interested."
For the first time in years, Tara was actually looking forward to school. She woke before her alarm went off, took extra time in the shower, spent nearly half an hour picking out the perfect outfit for the day. She didn't have chemistry with Jax until fifth period, and even that seemed like years away.
Before she knew it, though, the fourth period bell was ringing and Tara found herself rushing out of her Honors English class to head to her locker. Not wanting to seem too eager, she waited a few minutes at her locker, pretending to be looking through one of her notebooks before she casually walked into her chemistry class.
She was actually surprised to see Jax already sitting at their lab table. Ninety per cent of the time he was strutting into class late; he'd gotten more detentions for one class than most students did in their entire school year.
His face lit up when he saw her, watching as she slid onto the stool next to him and letting her books drop onto the counter. "Hey," he said quietly.
Tara flushed, "Hey yourself."
"Crazy night, last night, huh?"
She laughed, tucking her dark hair behind her ears as she pulled out her notebook. "Yeah really. That was the first time I'd ever gone swimming in the quarry."
"Really? Ope and I love going there at night. Nothing like it."
Tara nodded as their teacher, Mrs. Roberts, quieted the class, going up to the chalkboard to begin writing the day's notes. She could feel Jax watching her as she wrote down the formulas from the board.
When Jax suddenly leaned over, pressing his lips to her ear, and whispered, "Not gonna lie, you've got one hell of a back dive. I never knew you were so flexible, Knowles," Tara pressed too hard on her pencil and snapped the lead. Flushing, she turned to gape at Jax's satisfied smirk before getting up to sharpen her pencil.
He didn't say anything else to her while they continued taking notes, and when they broke into pairings to perform the day's experiment, all he said to her had to do with measurements or chemicals.
Tara couldn't help but wonder if his silence had to do with her reactions to his attempts. As she poured some sodium chloride into a beaker, keeping her eyes trained on the glass in front of her, she shyly noted, "You're a pretty strong swimmer yourself, Teller. And those summers working in your dad's shop have definitely paid off."
Jax laughed, "Oh so you were checking me out last night?"
She glanced at him from the corner of her eye, smiling slyly, "I might have noticed a few things…"
"Really?" His eyes gleamed as he moved closer, "Well let me just say that I'm glad you're not that scrawny twelve year old I used to play kickball with anymore."
To prove his point, he poked at her waist just above her hips. Tara blushed as she realized he was telling her he liked her curves she'd developed over the past few years. Unfortunately, he'd also found an extremely ticklish spot for her, causing her to let out an embarrassing squeak.
Jax's eyebrows rose in mischief, "Tara Knowles…are you ticklish?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," she insisted, trying to hide her smile as she set the container she was pouring with down. Jax reached for her, squeezing her sides and she shrieked, flinging her arms out to brace herself.
Instead of grabbing the table, Tara's hands collided with the row of glass beakers and containers on their lab table, sending them all crashing to the floor.
At the resounding crash, the entire class turned and "ooed" at the damage. Mrs. Roberts rushed over to see what had happened.
"I-I'm sorry, it was an accident," Tara insisted.
Mrs. Roberts clicked her tongue, "This class is not a joke Tara, you need to be careful and responsible. These beakers are expensive and they came out of the school's budget. You're going to have to pay for the replacements."
Tara's eyes widened and she stepped forward, "I can't afford to pay for these, Mrs. Roberts! My dad…" She glanced around, lowering her voice, "You know my dad won't help me. I don't have that kind of money."
"Well I'm afraid I'll have to take it up with Principle Crawford then."
"What'll happen to Tara?" Jax asked, moving to Tara's side.
Mrs. Roberts eyed him for a moment before sighing, "If Tara refuses to pay for the replacements, she'll get a lot of detention. Maybe even suspension."
Tara gasped, gripping at the table to support herself. Jax chewed the side of his lip as he eyed her before turning back to Mrs. Roberts, "I'll pay for them."
"Jax, you don't—"
"It was my fault," he continued, keeping his eyes on their teacher. "I shouldn't have been messing around, I'll be more careful from now on."
Mrs. Roberts, who obviously had reservations about Jax, eyed him for a moment. "Call my mom at the shop and tell her that I told you to send her the bill. She'll take care of it, if not, you can suspend me."
"Very well," the woman finally replied, sweeping her gaze over to Tara once before she walked away. "Clean this up, Jackson."
Tara watched silently as Jax bent down and began gathering all the glass together. He reached to grab a half of a broken beaker and winced when it dug into his palm. He cursed loudly, dropping the rest of the glass and falling back onto his ass, watching the blood bubble up in his hand.
"Jesus Christ, Jax!" Tara grabbed some paper toweling and pressed it to his hand. "Are you alright?"
He nodded before getting up, "I gotta go get this wrapped up. Ask Mrs. Roberts to have one of the janitors to help you clean this up, I don't want you getting cut, too.
She nodded, staring at his back as he made his way to the front of the classroom. Biting her lip, Tara slumped into a stool and leaned her chin in her hand.
"I didn't even get a chance to thank him."
By the end of the day, Tara was ready to go home and pass out on her bed. The past twenty-four hours had been quite the emotional rollercoaster. She said goodbye to her friends and started walking towards the buses when she heard someone call out to her.
Turning around, she saw Jax jogging to catch up with her. "How's the hand?" she asked, eyeing the white gauze wrapped around it.
Jax winked, "Nothing I can't handle. Think it makes me look tough?"
Tara laughed, rolling her eyes when Jax posed with his injured hand under his chin. "I'm glad you're alright."
"Please, I've had way worse."
Suddenly the mood changed, Tara swallowed heavily and stepped closer to him. "Listen, about what you did for me, stepping in like that, I just…thanks."
Jax's eyes moved back and forth between hers as he smiled down at her. "Don't worry about it. I'm glad I could help."
"I'll repay you, I swear…somehow," she jokingly bit the side of her lip.
Jax laughed, "Tell you what, how 'bout you go with me to TJ Bosley's party on Friday?"
Tara stared up at him. It was obvious Jax was into her, at least a little. She'd only had one boyfriend before, and she'd been thirteen and broke up with him after a month when he tried to feel under her bra. She may have grown up without a mother but Tara Knowles was no easy lay.
Yet, the way Jax looked at her, she couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't like that with him. She liked the way his sweatshirt felt around her, the way he could make her laugh, the way he rushed to her defense.
While his father's motorcycle club made her a little uneasy, Tara suddenly found she didn't mind spending time with the son of the King of SAMCRO.
"Yeah," she grinned up at him, "okay."
I kind of wish they'd shown flashbacks of Jax and Tara as kids, but I know that wouldn't really fit in the show. I bet Jax was a major hottie high school. Anyway, here's the first installment. There are probably going to be around 5 or 6, at least from what I've got planned so far. I'm also open to requests if there's a scene or time you'd like to see from them.
I'd love to know what you thought! Next up: Jax turns sixteen and becomes an official member of SAMCRO. What will this mean for his relationship with Tara?